French warship Danton found at the bottom of the sea

In a case of “anything you can do, I can do better”, underwater explorers have now announced they have found a French battleship torpedoed by a German U-boat more than 90 years ago on the sea floor.
And from the video it looks in remarkable condition.




The Danton, which sank with 296 sailors still on board, is sitting upright in more than 1,000 metres of water and 15 metres proud of the seabed.
It was found 35km southwest of the island of Sardinia during an underwater survey for a gas pipeline across the Southern Mediterranean Sea between Algeria and Italy.
The Fugro geo-sciences announced today (Feb 18 2009) that their survey vessel Geo Prospector found the sunken warship was carrying out a deepwater marine survey.
Detailed examination of the side-scan sonar data shortly after Christmas 2007 revealed a large wreck approximately 125m long with a beam of around 27m, lying upright on the seabed.



In January 2008, the Fugro support vessel Skandi Inspector used its ROV to examine the wreck site which revealed the wreck looked like a battleship.


Full video on Fugro website

A study of records suggested it could be the warship Danton which was sunk in the area in March 1917.
“Its condition is extraordinary,” Rob Hawkins, project director with Fugro GeoConsulting Limited told the BBC.
A comparison with the original plans for the battleship, including the position of its 240mm guns, confirmed the wreck’s identity.




The pipeline has been re-routed around the wreck site.
The discovery comes just weeks after it was announced that the wreck of the HMS Victory, sunk in 1744, was found in the English channel.